Kossar’s Returns With Bagels and Bialys on the Lower East Side

Headliner

Kossar’s Bagels & Bialys In the bagel capital of the world, the bialy, the round, flattened roll with onions in the center, also gets its due. Evan Giniger and David Zablocki, who in 2013 bought the 80-year-old Kossar’s Bialys on the Lower East Side, closed it in September for renovations. The working bakery in the back is now enclosed in glass, and the storefront is no longer drab, newly decked out with subway tiles and white marble. And now you can order your bialy sliced and filled with cream cheese, peanut butter, hummus and even whitefish salad, which was never offered before. Kossar’s is also making its own cream cheeses, labeled (and trademarked) as Schmears, in flavors like lox, vegetable, horseradish and everything bagel. The bialys have gone on a flavor trip, too, with sun-dried tomato, olive and apple-cinnamon. There are also pletzls (onion flatbreads), challahs and babkas. Sandwiches like the Yenta, with whitefish salad and pastrami salmon, are available for the first time. (Opens Friday): 367 Grand Street (Essex Street), 212-473-4810, kossars.com.

Opening

City Crab Shack Now that City Crab & Seafood on Park Avenue South is giving way to the relocated Union Square Cafe, Andrew Silverman and Dean Palin have moved their version of a Chesapeake Bay seafood spot a short distance away. The centerpiece is a tank full of blue crabs and lobsters that become Maryland crab soup, lobster rolls and crab beignets. (Wednesday): 10 East 16th Street, 212-529-3800, citycrabshack.com.

Lionsbeerstore A bistro and bodega stocked with more than 350 beers pours them to go with hearty food like a sausage platter, fish and chips, and chicken soup with dumplings, and sells them retail: 104 Second Avenue (East Sixth Street), 212-475-0595, lionsbeerstore.com.

Pizzeria Sirenetta When the Mermaid Inn on the Upper West Side moved next door, its original space was left dangling. Danny Abrams and Cindy Smith, the owners, have turned it into a white-brick and tile Italian restaurant and pizzeria. “There’s a need for good Italian up here,” Mr. Abrams said. Danny Amend, who was at Marco’s and Franny’s, is consulting, and Camille Rodriguez, formerly at the Red Cat, is in the open kitchen that divides the space into two dining rooms. A wood and gas oven roars in full view, turning out lusty pizzas, including their version of white clam and another with spinach, garlic hot peppers and fontina. Antipasti with an emphasis on vegetables, and a concise array of pastas and main dishes round out the menu. Sirenetta translates as “little mermaid”: 568 Amsterdam Avenue (88th Street), 212-799-7401, pizzeriasirenetta.com.

Warique Restaurant Exposed brick and ruddy earth tones create a setting similar to what this restaurant offered when it was on the Upper West Side. The menu in this new Queens location presses all the right buttons for Inca-inspired fare: 40-17 30th Avenue (41st Street), Astoria, Queens, 718-726-5555, wariquenyc.com.

Chefs on the Move

Robert Aikens has become the executive chef at the Rainbow Room complex in Rockefeller Center. Like his predecessor, Jonathan Wright, who left at the end of last year, he is from England, and had been working with Mr. Wright for about a year. Mr. Aikens has changed the Sunday brunch to à la carte, with a few buffet stations.

Ayesha Nurdjaja, who was at Red Gravy in Brooklyn, is the new chef at Hundred Acres in SoHo, with the mandate to create a mostly Mediterranean menu.

Shanna Pacifico has left Cozinha Latina in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, and in her wake the menu now offers pub food like mussels, cheeseburgers, fish and chips and roast chicken.

Looking Ahead

American Cut Marc Forgione plans an uptown branch of his TriBeCa restaurant in the spring, in the space that was Harlow: 111 East 56th Street.

Hometown Fried Chicken Bill Durney plans to open this sibling of Hometown BBQ a couple of blocks away in June, the second much-anticipated fried chicken spot in Red Hook, Brooklyn. (Carla Hall’s new place is coming soon.) Unlike his barbecue joint, the emphasis will be on takeout and delivery, though there will be seating for about 40: 329 Van Brunt Street (Sullivan Street), Red Hook, Brooklyn.

Paowalla Floyd Cardoz, most recently at White Street but best known for having been the chef at Tabla, will open a modern Indian restaurant in summer in the space that was Mezzogiorno. He said it will be a “no tablecloth” place, with two tandoors. He also plans to take advantage of the wood-fired pizza oven on the premises. “I want to do the kind of wood roasting my grandmother used to do,” he said. The name refers to Goan breadsellers: 195 Spring Street (Sullivan Street).

Perrine The Pierre Hotel will open this restaurant on March 21 in what had been the Maccioni family’s Sirio, which will close on Feb. 20. The new restaurant, with an entrance on East 61st Street, will connect with the Rotunda of the hotel, which is scheduled to open on June 1 as a cocktail lounge. The hotel’s executive chef, Ashfer Biju, will be in charge of both, creating fresh French-American menus that will incorporate a few dishes from the hotel’s history.

Russ & Daughters at the Brooklyn Navy Yard The venerable Lower East Side smoked fish and Jewish delicacy store, which has been adding restaurants to its portfolio, will expand into the Brooklyn Navy Yard in about a year, occupying 14,000 square feet in Building 77, the largest building in the navy yard. The company will have a commercial bakery, a base for catering and mail order and a retail area in what will be a giant food hall.

Closing

Moto This avant-garde Chicago restaurant, whose chef and co-owner, Homaro Cantu, died suddenly last spring, has been sold to the group that owns the acclaimed Alinea, also in Chicago. Katie McGowan, Mr. Cantu’s widow, announced that Moto’s last day will be Feb. 14.

Noted

Michelin Guide The ratings for hotels and restaurants in the 2016 Red Guide for France were released Monday. A total of 600 restaurants were awarded stars. At the very top, the chef and restaurateur Alain Ducasse broke even. His restaurant Alain Ducasse au Plaza Athénée in Paris regained its third star (last year it had two), but his restaurant in the Hotel Meurice was downgraded from three stars to two. Le Cinq in the Hotel George V in Paris was also awarded three stars. There are now 28 three-star restaurants in France, 82 with two stars and 482 with one. The guide goes on sale on Friday.